As most of you know, I was born in Norway. Throughout my youth our family lived in Norway, then Rochester, then Hastings, back to Norway, a short summer in Wanamingo, then Hastings again. By the time I had transferred from the University of River Falls to Mankato State University, my parents had moved back to Norway. They spent a few years in Kirkenes (go see how far north that is!), Drammen, Tranby, Sylling and now Bygdø. Dad has retired .. mom is retiring next year, my grandparents just turned 90, I haven't been to Norway in the summer since .... 1989 !!! ... and Jennifer never has, we figured this would be a good destination for our 2012 "big vacation".
The first challenge is getting there. I have a bazillion miles on Delta and enough status to get upgraded to first class. Plus, since we usually Delta because that is the main carrier at MSP, I try to get my frequent flier miles on Delta. I have some on the other airlines, like US Airways, but since they don't fly out of MSP often they usually expire. So the obvious first choice is find tickets on Delta.
When flying on Delta to Europe it invariably goes through Amsterdam and is operated by KLM. I had no problem finding reward flights to Amsterdam, but Delta doesn't fly from there to Norway so I'd have to purchase separate tickets for that. So, total, I'd have to spend 105,000 miles, $700, and sixteen hours of travel, to fly on Delta.
The obvious alternative is Iceland Air, but with no status we'd be in coach and we don't have the frequent flier miles to use. Total, we spent $2000, no miles, nine hours of travel. It was a no-brainer ... plus we managed to schedule a 3-night layover in Rekjavik. Yippee!
To add to the complexity, Jenn was scheduled to work for a week in Germany before our trip. We managed to get her a flight from Ramstein to Paris to Oslo which was supposed to land twenty minutes before my flight. We had it all figured out!
On the day of travel, I was lugging along two large suitcases. Things are expensive in Norway, and that means I bring along lots of things at the requests of our relatives. The big suitcase was for just that. The little suitcase had two weeks of clothes for myself. Being an international flight, it is standard to allow each passenger to check two bags. Which I did. Also, being an international flight, it is standard to serve beer and meals, even in coach. Which Iceland Air did not. After a couple hours into the flight, while sitting comfortably on my REI Sit Pad (because coach seats have no padding), the lights dimmed, and I realized ... I was hungry and they weren't serving food. Dammit. $10 later I was munching on a warm ham'n'cheese baguette before settling back into my Nook. And no beer. Oh well. After a six hour flight I was in Keflavik, seeking breakfast and my next flight. A few hours after that, I was in Oslo, with my parents! Yay!
But no Jennifer.
Air France was an hour late leaving Frankfurt and thus she missed her connection to Oslo. The next flight, after four hours, was full. They booked her on the last flight of the day ... eight hours after the one she was supposed to be on. At least she was upgraded to first class ... Air France is a Delta partner, and after flying halfway around the world a couple times last year, she has a high status for that to happen. But still, being eight hours delayed stinks.
So ... mom, dad and I decided to make the hourlong drive to Oslo and do some grocery shopping. We stock up on beer, crabs, shrimp, bread, chocolate, etc. Basically anything that looks good. When I try to pay with my credit card, the cashier asks for a PIN code. hm. I don't have a PIN code on my credit card. None of my credit cards have PIN codes. They also require RFID chips in the cards, which my cards don't have. Well, ok, my parents end up paying, and we find an ATM. Well ... none of my bank cards work either. We have checking and savings accounts in two banks and neither work in the ATM. Dammit.
Anyway, we head back to the airport and get my wife and then head to my parents' home, where we are renting an apartment for a couple nights, at 350 NOK a night (about $70). This is a steal!
At some point I called US Bank to figure out what my PIN code is. They tell me that they can't tell me, but they can send it to my home address. Obviously that does me a lot of good, so I get online and see if I can set a PIN code on their website, but it is clear that US Bank credit cards don't have PIN codes ... only debit cards do. I don't have a US Bank debit card because I don't have a US Bank checking account ... only a credit card. I call US Bank back and get another representative on the line to confirm this, and learn that Europe has switched over to a new type of credit card with an RFID chip and a PIN code, and they are in the process of rolling out new cards for all of us. Well gee, thanks for staying on top of this one.
The next call was to our banks to learn why we can't withdraw any cash. They checked their records and did not see any transactions at all - so the ATM's here aren't even reaching our banks.
... so there we were, no functional credit cards and no Kroner. Wonderful. But, we were at least united with my parents, and could borrow from them if needed, so it was, at this point, a minor inconvenience. Oh yeah, it was cold and rainy, and coming from hot and humid MN, we did not bring sufficiently warm clothes .... so we borrowed some.
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